Anastasia Winanti Riesardhy & Yeremia Sukoyo – Indonesia's eligible voters favor younger presidential candidates compared to older, more experienced politicians, a survey has found.
"Thirty-four percent of the respondents said they preferred the presidential candidates from the younger generation and only 15 percent said they preferred older candidates," Hanta Yuda, the executive director of the Pol-Tracking Institute, said on Sunday.
The survey, conducted between Dec.16 and 23, involved 1,200 respondents aged 17 and above in 33 provinces. Hanta said that while a large percentage of the respondents favored younger candidates, only 47 percent believed age was not a major factor in choosing a capable presidential candidate.
The survey also found the connection between the political parties with the public had very little importance to respondents compared to the impact brought by a strong political figure. "There were only 17.6 percent of the respondents who felt close or connected to a certain political party," he said.
Hanta said a majority of respondents, or 50.9 percent, preferred to vote for legislative candidates who had been involved in a political party and, despite their popularity, legislative candidates from the entertainment industry or other public figure were only favored by 16.8 percent.
"The survey found legislative candidates are the focal points for the party at the regional and national level. It also found that political parties' reputations are declining in Indonesia and the legislative candidates must make a direct contact with their constituents and improve their political performance because their figure has become more important," he said.
Hanta said that overall respondents were quite excited about voting in this year's election, with 81.3 percent saying they were interested in participating.
"But we have to take note that being interested in the election doesn't mean they will definitely participate. Many people who said they were interested in participating will not cast a vote for many reasons," he said.
The survey also found that Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo was the most popular potential presidential candidate. Joko was favored by 37 percent of the respondents.
Hanta said that if Joko was taken out of the equation, then the clear front-runner would be former general Prabowo Subianto. "When offered the names of presidential hopefuls, excluding Joko Widodo, Prabowo garnered the biggest vote with 19.2 percent," Hanta said.
Prabowo was followed by former president Megawati Soekarnoputri with 15.3 percent of the votes and Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, who was chosen by 13.8 percent of the respondents. "However, if Joko Widodo was put in the mix, he would be considered the most popular candidate," Hanta said.
The lack of definitive decisions from political parties about the presidential candidates they would support for the election has also affected public enthusiasm about participating.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents considered themselves as swing voters, whose votes could change at any time, and only 26.6 percent said they had made a decision on the candidate they would vote for. Another survey released by the Indonesia Survey Center found Prabowo as the presidential candidate with the most potential to eradicate rampant corruption in Indonesia.
The survey found that 19.1 percent of the respondents believed that Prabowo was the most capable candidate to fight corruption. He was followed by former Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud M.D., who was voted for by 11.9 percent of respondents, and Jakarta Governor Joko with 11.8 percent.
Andry Kurniawan, the ISC's communications director, said that Prabowo, who is the founder and chief patron of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), was believed to be a consistent anticorruption figure who would be able to take a hard line against the corrupt.
"Prabowo is seen as a figure who has a strong commitment to creating a good and clean governance based on the reformation mandate," Andry said.
The ISC survey was conducted from Jan. 1-12, involving 1,600 respondents aged above 17 years old in 33 provinces.
ISC researcher Dedet Fogerty said graft was deeply ingrained in the Indonesian political system, and that most major political parties, including the Democratic Party, Golkar and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), had all been implicated in graft cases.
The ISC survey also found Gerindra to be a political party considered the cleanest from corruption by 16.7 percent of the respondents, followed by the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) with 12.2 percent. "The public trust in political parties has plunged to its lowest level following the revelation of some major corruption cases," Dedet said.
He added that 26 percent of respondents believed corruption eradication efforts should start in political parties to prevent corrupt politicians from taking strategic positions in government.
The survey also found that a surprising 49.2 percent of respondents favored the use of the death sentence to deter corruption, followed by a life sentence, which was voted for by 24.6 percent of the respondents. "The public is so fed up the corrupt practices in this country," Dedet said.